Indiana is perhaps best known by its world famous Indianapolis 500 motorsports race, but there is indeed much more to this state. It is also a fast growing and very diverse state. The following are interesting facts about Indiana:1. Livestock and poultry occupations employ over 42,000 in Indiana.2. There are three biodiesel plants in Indiana, and one under construction.3. There are 12 ethanol plants operating within the state and together they produce over 1 billion gallons of ethanol.4. A third of Indiana’s soybean production is exported.5. Indiana’s tourism industry contributes almost $7 billion to the economy.6. Indiana’s top manufacturing industries are: transportation equipment, chemicals, and primary metals.7. The manufacturing industry employs approximately 640,000 workers in the state.8. Indiana’s coal industry provides the state with over 2,000 jobs.9. International manufacturing firms with operations in Indiana employ ...

 Morgan Stanley (MS) today announced that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU), Japan’s largest financial group and the world’s second largest bank holding company with $1.1 trillion in bank deposits, had closed on a $9 billion equity investment in Morgan Stanley (MS) that gives MUFG a 21 percent ownership interest in Morgan Stanley (MS) on a fully-diluted basis.

The deal was first announced back on September 22nd, but an expected announcement of the closing had not been forthcoming, causing the investment community to speculate on whether MUFG was backing out.

The stock closed at $27.09 on September 22nd when the deal was first announced. On October 7th when the deal received regulatory clearances both in the U.S and abroad, the stock opened at $24.28. On Friday 10/10/08, it closed at $9.68.

With Mitsubishi buying preferred stock with a conversion price of $25.25 per share as part of the deal, Wall

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Stocks posted among their best one day gain today, on word that the government is putting together a plan to buy stakes in some banks, as a way of help instilling confidence again into the banking system.

This follows a similar but more concentrated U.K. government plan to buy equity stakes to the tune of $37 billion, in Royal Bank of Scotland in which it will take a more than 50% stake, and Lloyds TSB and HBOS which are in the process of merging. The U.K government will take a 40% stake in the combined Lloyds TSB and HBOS. European Union central bankers also announced similar plans to inject capital into their banking systems.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 936 points (11.08%) finishing the day at 936.42. This was the largest point gain ever for the Dow and the fourth largest percentage gain.

The Nasdaq was up 194.74 for 11.81%,

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What stocks are going to be left standing after the current crisis has run its course? Paul Kedrosky of Ten Asset Management believes it will be companies that handle financial risk and tranparency well.

“CME has really laid out a nice path forward,” he said Monday on CNBC. He thinks they will be a player in moves to bring greater transparency to financial instruments like credit default swaps.

 

 

Riskmetrics and Factset Research Systems will also be beneficiaries, Kedrosky said. 

“Even though we’d like to say in the future only thing we’re going to do to manage risk is just cut leverage that’s just not realistic. It’s going to happen for sure we’ll go along with much lower leverage but we’re also going to continue use risk models and we’re going to go to the providers of risk models that do the most credible job of giving us data

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Chicago the most populous city of Illinois is also home to the world’s second busiest airport, Chicago O’Hare. But this state’s economy does not depend on any particular city or industry. Read on to find out more:1. Illinois is the top producer of nuclear power in the country.2. The state offers several tax incentive programs for companies relocating to Illinois.3. Almost 12,000 manufacturing firms are headquartered in the state, and together they operate 19,000 plants within the state.4. The most important industries in Illinois are: food, chemicals machinery, and fabricated metals.5. Over 2,000 banks and 1,000 savings institutions are headquartered in Illinois.6. The agricultural industry produces more than $8 billion in income.7. Illinois is the number one producer of soybeans and a top producer of corn.8. More than 6,000 trucking companies call Illinois home.9. ...

The most-watched vice-presidential debate in history recently took place between candidates Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, and Joe Biden, the senior Senator for Delaware, at Washington University in St. Louis. There were reportedly 70 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research. Stockerblog.com has put together a comparison of the Joe Biden Stock Index, which is made up of the companies that are connected to the billionaire contributors to the Joe Biden campaign, and the Sarah Palin Stock Portfolio, which is made up of the stocks in the Alaska State disclosure filing for her and her husband. The Palin Portfolio was down 22% outperforming the Biden Index which was down 27%, which doesn't mean much since it a comparison of a contributor index to a stock portfolio, or in other words, apples to oranges. However, both grossly underperformed the Dow ...

Sonic Innovations (SNCI) designs, develops, manufactures and markets advanced digital hearing aids, designed to provide the highest levels of satisfaction for hearing-impaired consumers. Capitalizing on its advanced understanding of human hearing, the company has developed patented digital signal processing (DSP) technologies, and embedded them into the smallest single-chip DSP platform ever installed in a hearing aid.SNCI has been consolidating operations in Europe to reduce operating costs and to focus resources on markets that offer the greatest profitability. Our price target is based on a price-to-sales multiple of roughly 0.6x FY09 sales estimate.  The target is $3.00 per share.Based on increased risks to growth, we again lowered our FY08 sales and EPS estimates. Managememt previously lowered its FY08 revenue guidance. The company finally gave up on Tympany and the referral concept and instead has expanded its distribution relationships and is acquiring and opening new clinics ...

Sonic Innovations (SNCI) designs, develops, manufactures and markets advanced digital hearing aids, designed to provide the highest levels of satisfaction for hearing-impaired consumers. Capitalizing on its advanced understanding of human hearing, the company has developed patented digital signal processing (DSP) technologies, and embedded them into the smallest single-chip DSP platform ever installed in a hearing aid.SNCI has been consolidating operations in Europe to reduce operating costs and to focus resources on markets that offer the greatest profitability. Our price target is based on a price-to-sales multiple of roughly 0.6x FY09 sales estimate.  The target is $3.00 per share.Based on increased risks to growth, we again lowered our FY08 sales and EPS estimates. Managememt previously lowered its FY08 revenue guidance. The company finally gave up on Tympany and the referral concept and instead has expanded its distribution relationships and is acquiring and opening new clinics ...

Monday October 13, 2008 - 12:15 PM

Navivest

All three major U.S. indices are up over 6%, as the markets surge on word that the government will be following the European Union lead in shoring up their banking system. The U.S government is looking at buying equity stakes in some U.S. banks.

The Dow is up 531 points to 8,983, the Nasdaq is up 116.38 points to 1,765.89, and the S&P 500 is up 59.21 to 958.43.

We are looking for a follow through tomorrow, so those who did not get in on Friday to catch today’s rally, can still enter into trades today.

Trading Ideas:

Freeport McMoran (FCX) – $39.51.

Amazon (AMZN) - $58.48

Fluor (FLR) – $42.90

Keep in mind that we recommend trading early profits. If these stocks are up $2 or more on Tuesday 10/14/08, exit. We are not yet ready to call a bottom for stocks. Third quarter earnings season is upon

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Overstock.com, Inc. (OSTK) is an online closeout retailer, offering discount, brand-name merchandise for sale primarily over the Internet. Its merchandise offerings include: CDs, DVDs, magazines, and books, music, videos and games (BMV); as well as bed and bath goods, kitchenware, watches, jewelry, electronics, sporting goods, and designer accessories.We remain negative on OSTK shares. The company's business model is flawed. Its gross margin is not large enough to support its operating cost structure. What's more, competitive pressures are increasing in the e-commerce space, and Overstock.com doesn't stack up to larger and better-run companies in online retail. And with the economy weakening further, consumers are becoming increasingly reluctant to spend money on discretionary purchases. As a result, we are reducing estimates for 2008 and 2009. We believe it is likely that the company will report disappointing results for the third quarter and warn that ...